© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
If anyone ever doubted the power of an image to open a story then the sight of a man grabbing a woman by the neck in public should have ended the uncertainty. The images of an in-marriage dispute between Charles Saatchi and Nigella Lawson have proved an invitation to examine the nature of power at a basic level.
It also provides a frame for a broader point about the position of the country made in the drawing above.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
A sketchbook family photo. (I disregarded Manuel Barroso and Herman Van Rompuy, well ok, I ran out of room).
‘Superschools’ that educate from the age of four straight through until the age of sixteen? The thought fills me with horror. The lack of geographical progression and no clear evidence of moving on somewhere new would have depressed me when I was that age. But, it’s happening in my home town and so, I expect, it is elsewhere in the UK as well.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
Winchester city has also just announced the return of amateur boxing matches to the gothic pile of the Guildhall. This news combined with the row about changes to the Westgate school made for a gift of a joke.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
As you might expect, there is a lot of bad feeling about the practical implications of the school decision some of which you can read in The Hampshire Chronicle.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
There will be more cartoon stories next week.
Cartoon: GCHQ and the US Prism surveillance programme © Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for http://tribunecartoons.com
The Prism data surveillance story leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden and published by The Guardian has arrived in the UK and the Foreign Minister William Hague has been forced to defend the alleged British involvement of GCHQ in the House of Commons.
This cartoon is cross-posted here.
Updated: 17th June 2013. You can raed the transcript of an online interview with whistleblower Edward Snowden here.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The PRISM revelations about the US National Security Agency and its relationship with communications companies will almost certainly spread to Europe and the UK in particular.
Updated: 9th September 2013. Der Spiegel from Germany is reporting this eye catching story based on further documentation about the work of the NSA.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
A hardy annual issue for any town possessing a university or college is the conflict between the local inhabitants and the students. HMOs or Homes in Multiple Occupation shelter many students while they are away from the houses of their parents. The sudden conflict of living styles and relative wealth can breed mutual suspicion with the all-year-around inhabitants. Add the often disinterested landlords and a university caught in a hard spot and you have, with luck, a subject rich for jokes.
Credit is due to the local council for attempting to mediate. I wonder if the absentee landlords will be joining in.
© Michael Cross and Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The Queen has been celebrating 60 years on the throne and the Archbishop of Canterbury delivered the traditional suck up which you can read here, should you wish. If longevity of life while being supported by the best our country can provide is deserving of such praise then, er, um…
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for http://tribunecartoon.com
This week actor Michael Douglas, star of Basic Instinct and many more movies, made an ear-catching claim that performing oral sex was connected with his mouth cancer*.
This may, or may not, be true in fact and his publicist has subsequently denied that is what he said but, the fuss provided a handy prompt for this image about other intimate oral relations in the UK. Above, you will see David Cameron, Ed Miliband, Nick Clegg, Nigel Farage take prime billing alongside a top hat and some filthy lucre.
Yes, the UK is having one of its periodic fits of worry about money in lobbying, party politics and its connection with time in office. As noted previously, the problem of unclear funding (or, benefits in kind) that power naturally attracts has become more obviously acute in recent years because of the end of mass participation subscriptions that used to pay for party politics.
* Happily or not, Douglas also has a high profile movie out about the famously sex interested piano virtuoso Liberace.
I have met few people who aren’t at least impressed by the idea of champagne. The sparkling wine is a powerful symbol of reward, celebration and achievement. Sometimes it even tastes good.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
So, I was intrigued when I discovered that one of my local Sainsburys supermarkets had been deemed sufficiently posh to stock a very high value brand of the drink – namely, Bollinger. This ‘reward’ is apparently quite rare for any store.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
As a cartoonist this is a lovely subject to receive as a commission and, especially so when it is a time of hardship for many, even in relatively wealthy Winchester. Scattered hereabouts are some of the ideas the subject provoked.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons for Hampshire Chronicle
I wonder which one will get published.
© Matthew Buck Hack Cartoons
The chancellor’s ‘Help to Buy’ property scheme is a large public subsidy with which the UK government has started to underwrite the risk for private businesses in the mortgage market. It is hard to feel this is wise.
You can also see the still version of the cartoon here.
Updated 23rd July 2013: There is an analysis of the expansion of the scheme announced on Tuesday July 22nd here from John McDermott at the FT – it has some interesting comments too. (Registration may be required to read the piece).
Interestingly, the Institute of Directors describe the expanded scheme as dangerous.
